Guest Bloggers

Elpida Voulgari is the co-founder of Avokiddo, a studio focused on creating high quality educational apps for young children. Avokiddo’s Beck and Bo has received several awards, including a 2013 Parents’ Choice Approved Award and was recognized as an App of the Week by Corona Labs. The studio’s latest title, Avokiddo Emotions, was featured on iTunes’ main banner in Education and graced by Apple as New and Noteworthy. Apple also handpicked both apps as “Best for ages 5 and under.”

Randy Lowenstein is a creative executive with over 15 years of experience in digital media. In 2011, he co-founded Megapops, an interactive children’s entertainment company focused on creating original content for touch devices. The company’s flagship property, Millie Was Here, is a series of book apps that follow the imaginary adventures of a real-life dog. The Millie Was Here series has been featured multiple times on the App Store.

If you’re developing Corona-powered apps for HID-controller-based environments, you might have wished that you can “simulate” the controller input similarly to how you simulate other aspects of your app. Now you can! In today’s guest tutorial, learn how to simulate HID controllers directly in the Corona Simulator.

Anders Linneman Hjarnaahas has worked in the web industry for 17 years and runs his own web agency, CPH Cloud, in Copenhagen, Denmark. With a solid background in ASP and ActionScript, Anders quickly picked up Corona SDK and began working on his first mobile game, CodeCrusher. In his guest piece, Anders writes on how he recreated the classic Mastermind board game for mobile devices with the launch CodeCrusher.

Nick Nebelsky, Creative Director and CEO of Intense Media, LLC, always dreamed of owning his own media company and now it’s starting to take shape. He and his writing partner, Dr. Mike Perko, Phd., just finished a multi-state book signing event at 7 Costco Clubs in the AZ and NC metro areas. Their book, Cornered! which also is available as an app, deals with a sensitive issue that children are faced with today – bullying. The book looks at the issue through the eyes of Sheldon, a square-shelled turtle.

Rob Heasley is the Founding Partner and Creative Director of Naked Penguin Boy. Rob started his career as an illustrator and animator in the early 90s and studied graphic design before moving into the advertising industry.

Marek Zilavy is a creative consultant for Little Galaxy, a game developed by Bitmap Galaxy. Marek was responsible for the copywriting, viral marketing, and public relations for Little Galaxy. Currently, Mark also works as a game designer for browser, Facebook and mobile titles.

In August 2013, Little Galaxy was recognized as a Corona App of the Week winner. In his guest piece, Marek shares the lessons he learned while marketing Little Galaxy, and his plans to build an audience in the game’s next update.

Last Wednesday, a group of San Francisco techies gathered in SOMA to talk eCPMs, ad placement, fill and mediation – in other words, mobile monetization – at Corona Labs’ Monetizing Cross-Platform Apps panel.

Learn more about the panel from SponsorPay’s communication manager, Jessa Moon.

Alan Gough has been involved in the software industry for over 25 years, mainly writing software for large insurance and investment management companies using technologies from Assembler to C#. Alan is also the founder of Retrofit Productions, the creator of Level Director, a third party tool which helps app developers create complex screens and levels with ease.

In today’s piece, Alan writes on Level Director tool and discusses how with a few clicks, the tool can take developers’ design ideas from paper to the mobile world.

For those of you who have played OmNomster, it’s likely that you haven’t noticed some of the small, subtle details that I’ve added to the game. That’s fine, since these effects shouldn’t be exaggerated to overwhelm the game. You actually shouldn’t notice them consciously, but they should give you an overall impression that the scene is real and alive.

Shaq chooses Corona to battle mutant zombies

Mobile Apps for Early Childhood Education

To build early childhood education apps, Redbytes Software founded tinytapps in 2011. Using Corona SDK, tinytapps has created over 45 apps that have enjoyed more than 500,000 downloads in Apple's App Store.

NuOffer: Digitizing the Real Estate Industry

NuOffer is a mobile app that brings negotiating and fulfilling real estate transactions into the 21st century. Built with Corona Enterprise, NuOffer connects buyers, sellers and agents to move faster, sell more, and make fewer mistakes in the process.

Fire Maple Games: An Indie Success Story

Joe Kauffman started Fire Maple Games in 2008 to create casual games for mobile. His latest titles, The Secret of Grisly Manor and The Lost City, have received 7M+ downloads, reaching #1 in paid apps in the App Store.